On February 19, the 40th International Carnival Parade was held in Rijeka, which once again attracted a huge number of visitors (91 carnival groups paraded through Rijeka's Korzo). After a forced two-year break – In 2022, a summer carnival parade was held, but it was only a poor alternative to the real carnival – caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the carnival parade returned to the “scene of the crime”. Rijeka, the locus delicti, once again sent impressive images of the carnival colorfulness of the most important masquerade dance in Croatia (and beyond) to the world. The impressions of the participants of the procession, to a large extent extremely positive, slowly subsided, and the circus carnelevari was replaced by the “calmness” of Lenten renunciation. It would be worth investigating why the carnival tradition, for many just a bizarre manifestation of pagan customs, occupies such an important place in the cultural, social and political life of many Croatian citizens, especially in Istria and Kvarner, but also in Dalmatia and certain inland “enclaves” such as Samobor or Međimurje.
Before we get into the theoretical interpretation of the political and cultural symbolism of carnival rituals, it is necessary to say a few words about the original meaning of the term itself. Carnival (lat. carnem levare, lit. to raise meat, fig. to consume/eat all the meat before the start of Lent), for which various names are used in Croatia (e.g. poklade, maškare, fašnik), has its origins in pagan, especially Roman, celebration of various winter and early spring holidays such as Saturnalia, Kalenda, Compitalia and Lupercalia. This pagan tradition was not suppressed by Christianization but continued to exist as a tacitly approved anomaly of “virtuous” Christian societies. The “sinful” period immediately preceded the Lenten penance period, so this social (and political) "impiety" was reluctantly allowed because it was followed by the sprinkling of ashes. The modern carnival tradition finds its beginnings in Italy (Venice and Viareggio as the most famous Italian carnivals), more precisely in the Italian medieval republics, from where it continued to spread throughout Europe (Cologne, Nice and Rijeka as the largest European carnival celebrations) and the New World (New Orleans and Rio de Janeiro as the world capitals of carnival).
The folklore tradition in Croatia distinguishes between two forms of carnival manifestations. On the one hand, the archaic village events of Lupercalian origin, rooted in the tradition of Slavic mysticism and ritual superstition with strong magical traces, in continental pastoral areas where men dressed in animal furs and with large bells parade through the settlements (e.g. zvončari/the bell ringers in the Rijeka hinterland, baukači/the bogeymen in Međimurje, didi/the grandpas in Zagora). On the other hand, the carnival events of Saturnalian origin, specific for the coastline and the islands, which are characterized by thoughtful socio-political criticism expressed by the reading of testaments and the burning of pust, the carnival mascot (these phenomena will be discussed below). In Croatia, these two types of ritual masking are often intertwined (the Rijeka Carnival is the best example). Many texts have been written about carnival history, as well as the sociological-ethnological dimension of the carnival phenomenon in Europe and the world (in the Croatian context, the ethnological studies of Ivan Lozica are worth noting), but the political dimension of carnival is insufficiently emphasized and minimally examined (one of the notable exceptions is Tilly's analysis of the French charivaris as a form of popular political action).
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven…” (Matt. 16:18-19), said Jesus to Simon Peter and with those words, de facto, established the Church and the pontificate. The allegory of the key that Jesus uses is the key to understanding the Western concept of government. The one who rules is in possession of the key with which the “door” of the rule towards the ruled subjects are locked or unlocked. Precisely for this reason, handing over the city keys to the masked bands during the carnival, although in Croatia it is usually seen as a purely symbolic act of collecting political points for those in power, is not an innocent thing. It is an act of popular subversion – resistance to elites disguised as a joke. The government, on the other hand, does not see a real threat in ridiculously dressed citizens with no real political ambitions. Especially since the key is only symbolic, and what’s more, only temporarily in the hands of those playful masses. However, it seems that this is a period that the government should be afraid of because it is a time of unrestrained honesty in which subversion ceases to be tacit.
A carnevale ogni scherzo vale, is an Italian saying, common in Istria and Kvarner, which says that during the carnival, any joke is allowed, and this means that the people suddenly loudly say what they really think but hidden behind a veil of jokes acting as a shield from the anger of the government which is being criticized. The mass of people, paradoxically, is represented by the carnival queen. Is there a greater irony than that a masked people elect a monarch to speak for them? But even in that act, the subversive political discourse of the carnival manifests itself – it is a parody aimed at criticizing the tyrannical tendencies of formally “democratic” authorities, but also at the criticism of the masses who, again and again, readily elect those addicted to political power to whom they transfer their sovereignty. In the end, it is also a criticism of what Debord calls the society of the spectacle, because the very election of the carnival queen is unquestionably inspired by the beauty pageants – the elections of the Miss. The allusion is quite clear: spectacularization has become an integral part of political life and elections are deprived of their originally political dimension.
Carnival fights against the anti-politics of contemporary politics by politicizing its own, apparently non-political and parodic discourse. The discourse of carnival is at its very core a discourse of politics. There are two main aspects through which the politics of the carnival discourse is manifested: the testament and the burning of pust. Teštament (the will in the čakavski/Chakavian dialect) in the carnival tradition of Kvarner signifies the last thoughts of pust, the straw doll publicly blamed for all our misfortunes in the past year. In the name of pust, these reflections, written in dialect and rhyme, are read aloud by one of the local personas involved in the carnival events, and they abound with subversive political messages and criticism of the authorities, primarily the local ones. After the last words of pust are read, for whom a new more appropriate name is found every year, the execution follows – the culprit for all the wrongdoing is publicly burned on an improvised pyre. Reading the will and burning the pyre symbolizes the game of blame shifting because when you are in the position of power, you will easily find a scapegoat. The masqueraded “elite” that governs the city during the carnival period finds a new villain every year to blame for all the sins, but the ultimate subversion is hidden behind the verses of the testament, which in a simple and funny but politically thoughtful way, questions the legitimacy of every government.
In the end, it is worth noting that there is an almost primordial need for transformation in people prone to masquerading. And while, superficially, it would be completely logical to conclude that by the act of masking people transform into someone else, that they take over someone else’s identity, the reality is fundamentally different. During the carnival, masking means liberation – it is not an escape from one’s own personality and reality through hiding behind other people’s clothes, it is about finding ourselves. By putting a mask – a carnival mask, not the medical one – on us, we become who we are. We discover the fullness of our essence as unique individuals belonging to humanity by perverting the socially imposed image of what we should be, how we should act, what and when we should speak. Only after disguising ourselves, we feel free to say what we think and address those embodied thoughts to those to whom they are really addressed, without fear of political persecution, because during the carnival, anything goes – a carnevale ogni scherzo vale.